Oscar noms omitted some worthy names

'Town' and 'Superman' among no-shows

Where were “The Town,” “Waiting for Superman,” Julianne Moore, the directing noms for Christopher Nolan and Lisa Cholodenko and the song bid for Diane Warren? Some of the biggest surprises in Tuesday’s announcements were in the omissions.

It was a strong animated race, with only three slots for toon feature, meaning Disney’s “Tangled,” DreamWorks Animation’s “Shrek Forever After” and Universal’s “Despicable Me” were relegated to also-ran status.

The Acad’s music branch left out some big-name songwriters. Aside from Warren, who won a Golden Globe this month for her “Burlesque” tune, the song shutouts include Avril Lavigne (the tune from “Alice in Wonderland”); Carrie Underwood (“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”); Eddie Vedder (“Eat Pray Love”); Justin Bieber (“The Karate Kid”) Alanis Morissette (“Prince of Persia”); and Janet Jackson (“Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too”).

Even with last year’s expansion of the best pic race, 10 slots were not enough for the strong work in 2010. Among films that had held hopes for attention but that never seemed to gain much traction with awards voters: Peter Weir’s “The Way Back,” Marshall Herskovitz’s “Love and Other Drugs,” Anton Corbijn’s “The American,” John Curran’s “Stone,” “Secretariat,” “Made in Dagenham,” “Conviction,” “Fair Game,” “The Ghost Writer,” “Hereafter,” “Shutter Island,” “Somewhere” and “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.”

Then there was work that wasn’t expected to be nommed because they hadn’t made Oscar’s shortlists (French film “Of Gods and Men,” the makeup work in “Black Swan”) or had been deemed ineligible (Carter Burwell’s adaptations of hymns for “True Grit”).

And a notable missing name: Ryan Kavanaugh, who’s listed onscreen as one of the producers of “The Fighter” but was deemed ineligible as a producer by the Academy.